Dow notches record point surge in dramatic rebound

US stocks posted their worst Christmas Eve session ever on Monday, as a ideal storm of concerns drove investors to bail out of a market that was already badly bruised.

Business reports the Dow rose 1,086 points, gaining 5 percent. The S&P was up four percent Wednesday while the Nasdaq rose 4.8 percent.

Equity futures were giving back some gains following the biggest one-day Dow point gain in history.

Economists called the big market moves a "reflex rally" after Monday's drop, which left Wall Street on track for its worst December since the Great Depression.

Investors are not relieved by the strong performance of the Dow Jones on the day because of the unusual volatility USA markets have demonstrated in the past several weeks and with the Dow Jones still at risk of plunging into a bear market, the tension of most investors is likely to extend across the first quarter of 2019. In percentage terms, that's a gain of almost 5 percent.

The upbeat news from the retail sector shows that the consumer, which accounts for a huge chunk of the USA economy, is healthy and optimistic enough to get out and spend-or stay at the keyboard and spend-despite the volatility that the stock market has seen in November and December.

The heavy-weight FAANG group - Facebook Inc (FB.O), Amazon, Apple Inc (AAPL.O), Netflix Inc (NFLX.O) and Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O), rose between 1 percent and 4 percent. "The concerns are government shutdown, the economy, the President - what time is he going to tweet out about Federal Reserve", said Larry Benedict, founder of the Opportunistic Trader in Boca Raton, Florida.

The market's sharp downturn since October intensified this month, erasing all of its 2018 gains and nudging the S&P 500 closer to its worst year since 2008. Many investors are growing anxious that corporate profits - which drive stock market gains - are poised to weaken. The major averages posted huge recoveries Wednesday, after being closed for the holiday Tuesday and posting steep declines on Christmas Eve. And Ford (F) stock, which hit a nine-year low earlier in the day, ended slightly higher.

Despite Wednesday's rally, the Dow and S&P are still down more than 10% for the month, on pace for their biggest monthly percentage drop since February 2009.

The decline in oil prices weighed on energy stocks. The Dow soared 1,086.25 points, or 5 percent, to 22,878.45.

Retailers also got a holiday boost. But even with that gain, it is still down 7.4 percent on the year. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note held steady at 2.75 percent. The benchmark S&P 500 index also gained 5 percent and the technology heavy Nasdaq rose 5.8 percent.

Gold edged up 0.1 per cent to US$1,273 an ounce. Shares of department store JCPenney (JCP) dipped below $1 for the first time and Ford (F) stock was down as much as 9% this week.

In other trading Wednesday, South Korea's Kospi gave up 1.3 percent, while Japan's Nikkei 225 index, which plunged 5 percent on Tuesday, picked up 0.9 percent.

"It was probably a pretty good retail-oriented holiday and that probably has a lot to do with what's happening today", said Kim Forrest, a senior portfolio manager at Fort Pitt Capital Group.

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The markets closed Christmas Eve down sharply, with the Dow dropping 653 points and the S&P 500 nearing a bear market. Trump defended Mnuchin, telling reporters on Tuesday that the Treasury chief is a "very talented, very smart person".

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Trump shifted his criticism again to the Fed, saying it "raised the interest rates too fast, that's my opinion". USA stocks edged up on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 (.SPX) up 0.2 percent in late morning trading.

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Rescue and relief efforts are still underway. "Our national potential is sufficient to handle the Sunda Strait disaster", he said. Nugroho said the declaration should make it easier to deploy emergency supplies to shelters and other needed areas.

The International Monetary Fund expects USA economic growth to slow to 2.5 percent next year from 2.9 percent in 2018. It also created a lot of heartburn getting there, with two separate drops of 10 percent over the course of the year.

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